MasterCard, Visa Halt WikiLeaks Payments

MasterCard and Visa Europe confirmed Tuesday that they will block payments to WikiLeaks.

MasterCard and Visa Europe confirmed Tuesday that they will block payments to WikiLeaks.

"MasterCard is currently in the process of working to suspend the acceptance of MasterCard cards on WikiLeaks until the situation is resolved," the company said in a statement.

Visa Europe, a separate and independently operated company from Visa Inc., will do the same. "Visa Europe has taken action to suspend Visa payment acceptance on WikiLeaks' Web site pending further investigation into the nature of its business and whether it contravenes Visa operating rules," the company said in a statement.

At this point, the WikiLeaks donation Web site still lists MasterCard and Visa as viable options for donating via credit card. Datacell Switzerland serves as the site's credit card processing partner. Supporters can also donate via a bank transfer to Germany or Iceland, where WikiLeaks has public bank accounts, or send funds via snail mail.

WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange announced Monday that the Swiss Bank Post Finance has frozen his defense fund and personal assets, and designated him as a "high profile" individual. WikiLeaks and Assange lost $100,000 euro in assets, he said.

"The technicality used to seize the defense fund was that Mr. Assange, as a homeless refugee attempting to gain residency in Switzerland, had used his lawyers address in Geneva for the bank's correspondence," Assange said in a press release.

Last week, PayPal also permanently restricted the account used by WikiLeaks "due to a violation of the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy, which states that our payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity," the company said. Assange said that move resulted in WikiLeaks losing another $60,000 euro.

One thing Assange can't use his funds for is bail. On Tuesday, he was arrested in London on charges of rape. He was denied bail and will remain in custody until at least December 14.

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 1:15pm Eastern time with comment from Visa Europe.

Chloe Albanesius has been with PCMag.com since April 2007, most recently as Executive Editor for News and Features. Prior to that, she worked for a year covering financial IT on Wall Street for Incisive Media. From 2002 to 2005, Chloe covered technology policy for The National Journal's Technology Daily in Washington, DC. She has held internships at NBC's Meet the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Roll Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from American University...
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